Somewhat climate change, but screwworm mitigation program falls under USDA, and the Secretary of Agriculture is a random hack with no relevant experience whose career is nothing but bouncing around conservative slush funds. Good odds Trump admin once again breaks things they don't understand.
wouldn't be surprised if the grants for breeding sterile males tripped the DEI keyword filter and got tied up.
Or possibly a porn filter.
I thought I saw something about how there was a big recent expansion of the program in TX but maybe I misremember
I literally never thought I'd post a sentence that reads "actually the screwworm story isn't as bad as you think" but here I am arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
I remember thinking “oh good at least we’re still doing something about those”
Also important to note this is not a case contracted in the United States, this is someone who traveled to Central America and contracted it there. Like that doesn’t make it *good* but as of yet the screwworm has not regained a natural hold in the US.
no, you're probably right. my presumption is not based on any evidence. Just the heuristic "It's 2025, and things can indeed be that stupid"
I was reading press coverage with an eye to that, and I think this hurts enough rich Republicans that it's one of the few things that's expanding. Now, will, say, Homeland Security find a way to wreck it? Quite possibly, but for now, we are good.
I mean, this was a big problem into the 1970s I think, so still living memory for people.
"it'd be shooting their own base squarely in the dick" has not been a very good heuristic for what the admin will/won't do. The death drive has overtaken self-interest in the Republican party.
Very true. But this directly shoots the local rich people in the dick, with cause and effect so simple even they can understand.
And yet you'd think the same thing about FEMA and gulf coast property values.
That's probably not going to happen next year, screwfly could be that fast
The primary issue in USDA is that some of their program areas already had ~80% of staff qualified for retirement and then the fork email came.
There's an expansion, but, just off the cuff, look at point 5 about inspections. "USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service," eh? The same one Trump / DOGE hacked to pieces? Yep, that's the one.
Yeah, there was (the incident in the OP was a travel-related case) www.avma.org/news/usda-un...
so glad my senator @schiff.senate.gov voted to confirm the Secretary of Agriculture who "is a random hack with no relevant experience whose career is nothing but bouncing around conservative slush funds"
Below is an article from a few weeks ago. Not sure of your point of reference. 👇Follow the link gov.texas.gov/news/post/go...
Found - Rollins, Zeldin and McMahon on the America First Works members and Rollins on AFPI AFW proudly believes in American exceptionalism and promotes an America First agenda through the promotion of policy. www.americafirstpolicy.com/team/brooker... americafirstworks.com/leadership/
Just gonna keep tapping this sign until this is all over. bsky.app/profile/clay...
Things were fine, they could have just let everything be.